Vettel takes pole in Mexican shootout

The German stole the pole away from the Red Bull driver at the death of Q3 after looking strong all throughout Qualifying. However, the Dutchman is currently under investigation for impeding Valtteri Bottas on his first lap in Q3.

Valtteri was able to recover to fourth and outqualified compatriot Kimi Raikkonen who finished fifth. Esteban Ocon claimed sixth ahead of a struggling Daniel Ricciardo who has nothing like the pace his teammate had.

Hulkenberg got the better of his Renault teammate, Sainz, who finished ahead of home hero, Sergio Perez.

Three drivers didn’t set a time in Q2, Brendon Hartley stopped out on track due to an engine issue, and the McLaren’s of Alonso and Vandoorne didn’t set a time to save tyres as the had a 20 and 35 place penalty respectively.

This meant only two cars would realistically drop out of Q2 and the dishonour of that went to the Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll, the Brazilian qualifying ahead of his rookie teammate.

It looked for a moment that the Sauber of Pascal Wehrlein could get into Q2, however he ended up 17th behind teammate Ericsson who qualified 16th.

The Haas cars have struggled all weekend and thanks to Pierre Gasly’s car issues, he spared the US team the chance to lock out the back row with Magnussen qualifying 17th ahead of teammate Grosjean.